When Barry Became ... Baruch?

When Barry Became ... Baruch?

For your latest entry in the seemingly non-stop barrage of fawning Barack Obama major-media coverage, look no further than
Newsweek
's latest cover, which offers "
When Barry Became Barack
."

All very interesting, I suppose. But while
Newsweek
's on the subject, I'd be interested to learn about "Baruch Obama." That's the version that Eleanor Kerlow repeatedly used in
Poisoned Ivy
, her 1994 review of Harvard Law School's troubled late-1980s, early-1990s days.

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Perhaps one of my Convictions colleagues -- or one of our readers -- can clear this up for me: Did Barack actually go by "Baruch" at some point in time? If so, why did he change it to "Barack"? The
Newsweek
piece never mentions "Baruch."

I suspect that, in fact, he never used the name "Baruch," and that Kerlow made a mistake. (In the 1990 volume of the Harvard Law Review, for example, he's listed as "Barack Obama.") Then again, I've long thought that Kerlow's entire book was a mistake.